Even if there weren't he would have still have been an alcoholic though.

^ Agree, closing down bars and getting rid of free drinks wouldn't win his battle with alcoholism

No perhaps not but the temptation was there - he may have been better able to avoid heavy days or temptation and his life would have been longer.

temptation is everywhere, there's not a lot you can do about it sadly.

I understand that but there are not many jobs where there are tons of bars open at work at all times of the day in work. Where drinks are thrust into your hands 24/7 and all the people you work with will tell lies about how drunk you are as there jobs and careers depend on people thinking you are always sober. Plus every journo buying drinks

There are 8 bars at westminster

It doesn't matter, you have a choice.. if you work in a bar or have an extensive cocktail cabinet it's up to you to go to the bar and choose not to drink.

Most people do not have a workforce whose job it is, is to hide the fact you are an alcoholic from others and tell you that you are great

:/ I don't know an alcoholic that can freely admit it to themselves let alone work colleagues. It's been public knowledge for years he was a functioning alcoholic though it was the loss of his job that tipped the balance. There's nobody to blame.

No one to blame but ourselves that we continue to let this problem persist in society with little understanding. When the most effective way to deal with it is to recommend AA what does that tell you about how we are currently dealing with this huge problem?

It is a really hard and for many a near impossible battle to win.

There is always the danger, even if someone can get off alcohol,that they will relapse,hence why they are alcoholics.
You get the daft people, who say to them, oh one won't hurt you surely,or others who slip alcohol into soft drinks.

It is crushing,often not just for the alcoholic but also for the people around them, who in effect often feel and can become powerless as to helping them get off alcohol and more importantly,stay off it too.
People they really need in their lives are gone,because it is horrendous to watch the downward slope continuing or returning.

There is not the recognised dangers as to the gigantic problem alcoholism is, people are thrown into talking therapies,with nothing or at best little else of note really.
It can be both infuriating and distressing to see the trauma and health conditions being an alcoholic can leave someone with.

For me, the awful and really sad thing about Charles Kennedys death from this horrendous condition,is that he was a man who has for all his life had large groups of people round him.
Then in comes 2015, he loses his Father in April,then he loses his seat,that has been his job and life for over 30 years.
He then finds himself alone,I understand his marriage broke up too some years back.
Then we hear he was 'found' one morning after losing his life.

For me, dying alone is awful.

He was a politician I had massive respect for,and for me this was a really tragic end for a man who worked so hard for others, was dedicated to his career. and who achieved such great success too.
To have this weakness of never being able to fully combat this illness,only highlights how vulnerable sufferers of this can become,a truly cruel illness that is claiming more and more lives,both of young and old.

It is odd at times, how people you haven't met,when something as tragic as this happens to them, it can have an effect on you too.
This whole story I find really so sad as to Charles,awful.

"this illness,"


No sadly he choose to Drink himself to Death

It was still a life well lived. he packed quite a bit into 55 years, that is a blessing

No Arista, he did not, addiction is addiction.

Yes he choose it

Well you do choose to drink I guess but when it tips over into a full blown psychological as well as physiological dependency then I'd say addiction becomes a chronic illness.

Its like choosing to be gay

the way the scottish nazis party supporters attacked him was sick, very few mps like him around who are not greedy,

That is not necessarily the case, any addiction is bad news for the addict,some things people,'yes people',become addicted to are in fact not that easy to get.
Alcohol is actually hard to escape from, all social occasions have it on offer, as has been pointed out MPs are able to get it virtually all day in their 'workplace'.

Walk into a supermarket and you will find displays of alcohol at almost every aisle and even right in front of you as you walk in the door with special displays and special offers as to it too.

It can be a nightmare for those with alcohol addiction,coming across all that and if something has triggered a downward spiral,then an alcoholic will relapse.
They wouldn't be alcoholics if relapsing wasn't a possibility.

It is easy to take the line, someone threw their life away,it is really hard for those with alcohol addiction to get 'real' ongoing help and also to have the right people and influences around them too.

Sadly, and even more of a nightmare, it can be that someone with an alcohol addiction has lost the very people they could really need in their lives due to that addiction.
That isn't something done voluntarily, in the main they cannot help themselves.

They don't want to die, they don't even think death may result.

You say coldly,he drank himself to death.
Maybe not so, he will have had liver damage and also other conditions possibly due to his past drinking.

The cause of death was said to be a major haemorrhage due to his alcoholism not because of a drinking binge.
That likely meant he probably did take a few drinks again but not necessarily a great number,which then caused him to suffer a major haemorrhage.

Such a haemorrhage can happen even if an alcoholic has stopped drinking,the damage is done, once the Liver gives up and pressure builds in the vessels of the liver, that is when such a dangerous or fatal haemorrhage can occur.

It isn't nice, it isn't painless and few would choose it knowingly to happen to them.
An addict cannot help themselves,they need support and masses of help.

Despite his alcoholism,this guy did loads for other people via his work.
It is very easy to kick people when they are down and judge them,I'd rather say more needs to be done to assist and really help addicts of whatever they may be addicted to.

Yes they need to help themselves too but that is far easier said than done,or for others to even understand unless they can really take on board how extremely hard it is to cope with addictions of any kind.

Anyone who has no addictions, should be really grateful for that,for those with addictions however, judgement and condemnation from those who haven't any,is no constructive use at all.

Excellent post Joey thankyou :) my recovery was tested recently when shopping some stupid woman thrust a tot of liqueur at me during a demonstration at the end of an aisle... she nearly got the thing rammed up her shnozz! :laugh:

oh for crying out loud, every mp gets nutters on twitter. you have no proof they were snp supporters except the article demanded by owner Paul Dacre on the DM

jesus wept

Be in the public eye

go on twitter

and see how you go

:rolleyes:

Its like I cannot understand anorexia

eat for gods sake

but its not that easy, i dont get it


or depression, pull yourself together, i dont get it

but that does not mean it does not exist

It annoys me Kizzy, a guy I was at Uni with is an alcoholic, he does great but in supermarkets he is confronted with display after display and the ridiculously low offer prices too for it.
Once I went in with him because he needed bread, we made our way direct to the bakery area,only to be confronted with bottles of wine on 4 racks right alongside the bread and cakes aisle.

I would,if I had my way, make supermarkets have to sell alcohol,only from one part of the store,separated from general shopping in the same way cigarettes and tobacco are.

I can well understand your anger at it being pushed at you like that.

Thanks, it doesn't usually bother me as I know it's me with the issue,anyone else with a healthy relationship with alcohol wouldn't be phased but sometimes it just seems to be EVERYWHERE as you say :/
I look at it now kind of like having a peanut allergy, it's just something that would make my throat swell so I can't have any.
I can still sit around and have a mars bar while everyone else has a snickers though :joker: